God of Joseph

Rabbi Melanie Aron

Saturday, January 6, 2007

David Letterman has a top ten for almost everything, but I believe it was Rabbi Joshua Hammerman who published “The Top Ten Reasons for the Big Snub,” that is his top ten explanations for why when we pray, “God of our fathers, God of Abraham, God of Isaac and God of Jacob,” we don’t also add God of Joseph. It is actually an interesting question. After all it isn’t just that people can only remember three names: when we added the Matriarchs to our prayers in the 1970’s we were able to assimilate all four, Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel and Leah.

Some of Rabbi Hammerman’s reasons for this big snub are grounded in the Biblical text. Joseph lived all but seventeen of his years outside the land of Israel, while the other Patriarchs spent most of their lives in Canaan. Joseph was married to Osnat, daughter of Poti-phera priest of On, though of course Moses was married to Zipporah, daughter of Jethro, priest of Midian. Some of his reasons are problematic to me. His first reason was “that Jacob’s favoritism was a big turn off and God didn’t want to encourage lousy parenting by promoting the already swell headed Joseph”. To me this seems more of a reason to eliminate the other Patriarachs than not to include Joseph. After all Abraham cut off all his other sons from receiving an inheritance, in favor of giving it all to Isaac. Isaac favored Esau though he ended up giving his blessing to Jacob. Joseph seems more a victim of favoritism than its promoter.

Other reasons Rabbi Hammerman gives are more humorous. The baker’s union objected because Joseph never acknowledged his debt to the baker who got him his job, and the Bubbe’s union because, Joseph didn’t phone home. That is during all the years he was in Egypt, even after he had risen to power, he never made any effort to get back in touch with his worried dad. Is that any way for a nice Jewish boy to behave?

I have a different theory. The listing of the Patriarchs at the beginning of the Avot has a very special function. In the Amidah we stand as if before God in private conversation. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are models of this kind of closeness with God. Abraham finds direction in his life, from God’s words Lech Lecha, go forth. Jacob is comforted by God words. When he needs to leave Cannan to go down to Egypt to join Joseph, he hears God saying to him Al Tirah, do not fear. The Patriarchs each have an intimate connection with God, something completely lacking in the Joseph story. When our rabbis, about 1800 years ago, composed the prayers we still say today, they wanted us to connect with the special relationship with God, which these three ancestors of our people felt.

But there is another place in our tradition where Joseph figures significantly, at least through his sons. As many of you know traditionally we bless our sons on Friday evening with the words, yisimchah Elohim keEphraim ucheMenasheh, may God make you like Ephraim and Menasheh. Ephraim and Menasheh were the children of Osnat, the daughter of a pagan priest. From a verse in this Torah portion, where Jacob looks at these two of his grandsons and asks: “Who are These?”, we conclude that they were very assimilated in dress and hair style, looking more like Egyptians than like Hebrews. And yet they threw their lot in with the Jewish people. They became founders of two important tribes of Israel. Even if their Jewishness was not discernable from the outside, and it seemed as if the forces of assimilation had won out, they became, Jewish no less than Reuben and Simeon, Jacob’s oldest sons.

I think for us today in America, the religiosity of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for whom God’s voice was as familiar as any other member of their family, is difficult to attain. Our lives are more like Joseph’s, where God is just barely discernable, behind the scenery of the events in our lives. Externally, we look like Ephraim and Menasheh totally swamped by the forces of assimilation. But by identifying with Joseph, and with his sons, we find a way of connecting with our people and our heritage.

Jessica, I pray for you and your entire generation, yiseemaych elohim- ke Ephraim uche Menasheh, may God make you like Ephraim and Menasheh who received Jacob’s blessing and carried forward the life of our people.